Perth’s Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) ground has been known for its nature — pace and bounce. But this time the match between India and Australia will be played in a different stadium. The new stadium’s wicket, by the way, also promises to fast and bouncy. Australia captain Tim Paine said that it would be a good toss to lose. “Yeah it will be I reckon (good toss to lose). Actually, I spoke to the curator about it this morning. I really don’t think the pitch will play that badly. For the ODI and T20 here, both those wickets looked really green for white-ball cricket but it played really well,” Tim Paine was quoted as saying by news agency PTI on the eve of the inaugural Test at the new Optus Stadium.
“With the heat it will probably break up and you will see cracks in the game. It is what it is and whatever you are doing tomorrow morning you need to start really well,” Paine added.
India have made few changes due to injuries, Australia have named the same squad that played the first Test in Adelaide Oval. With the win, India now lead the series 1-0 and would love to make 2-0 for the visitors.
“They have new guys coming in. We have spoken about it, but we have concentrated over their whole squad over the last few weeks so we know their strengths and weaknesses. Again it is about putting it together on the field, and whatever eleven they put on the park, they will come hard they are prepared well and they have a sniff of something special (2-0). So we will have to be right on our game from ball one,” Paine said.
Not only the unchanged side, but Australia will also play the same batting line-up with Aaron Finch set to open the batting. “We encourage all our players to back their strengths. Finch has been successful doing that in international cricket. He might not have played well in UAE but he is just one score away like anyone else to get more self-belief at the Test level that he already has at T20 or ODI level. Finch is no different than any other player and you are not going to succeed unless you back your strengths.
“There was no doubt about Mitchell Starc not playing. Criticism has been pretty unfair. After Adelaide, barring 2-3 overs where his radar went wrong, he bowled pretty well. He is getting close to his best again and swung the ball in Adelaide, which he didn’t do in UAE.
“He will do it in Perth with conditions out there and one thing I know about him when he cops a bit of criticism he takes it a bit personally. So he will go out there pumped and we know what he can produce. We have no doubt that he is the best and we are proud to have him in our team,” Paine added.
Asked about keeping India captain Virat Kohli quiet again, Paine exuded confidence about their bowling. “Whether he gets runs or he doesn’t get runs, we were happy with how we bowled to him in Adelaide. Obviously in the first innings, he didn’t get in and Usman Khawaja took a great catch. In the second innings, we were really pleased that we made him face over a hundred balls to score 30 runs and I don’t think he does that a hell of a lot.
“And even of those 30-odd runs, I think 6-7 came when we threw the ball to Travis Head for a few overs. So we made him face a 105-110 balls for 20-odd, and that’s something that we want to continue to do. We know that at some stage, he is going to score runs. He is the best player in the world. We respect that but we want to make him work really hard for every run,” the Aussie captain said.
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